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Case Studies
How India Inc. manages customer relationships
Here’s how Refco-Sify and iSeva use CRM to manage their
client relations. by Deepali Gupta
Trading CRM
Refco-Sify Securities India is an online portal and offline trading company
whose transaction volumes run into several crores every day. A combination of
its homegrown system and the Microsoft CRM helps Refco-Sify manage interactions
with its clients.
The Need
The trading platform is available to the customer over the Refco-Sify Website
and through its floating sales force. As a trading organisation, Refco-Sify
also considered it important to address customer queries. The company has a
customer service desk that can be approached via e-mail or phone.
With multiple channels of access and a wide range of actions available to the
customer, tracking transactions with every individual was difficult using Excel
or Outlook. Besides, customers began to expect the kind of response that top-notch
BPOs offer. To address this need, Refco-Sify considered a CRM solution. It concluded
that a combination of its homegrown system and the Microsoft CRM would work
best.
The solution
The goal was to address the high attrition rates at its customer service desk,
and provide a consolidated view of interaction history for each client. To deal
with attrition, Refco-Sify put a knowledge centre in place. This way, customer
history is available to an employee answering a phone call or query. The rep
has all answers to issues raised by the customer. The advantage of this pproach
is that every time a new person joins the team, he does not have to go through
any major training. Every interaction with a client is fed into the system,
so no matter who approaches the client, there is no missing link. The company
doesn’t use analytics, but the roll-out of consolidated computer analysis
based on client information is just few months away.
The service
The IT team headed by Manoj Chandiramani, Vice President - Networks, manages
the CRM set-up. The Microsoft CRM solution deployed at Refco-Sify is still being
customised.
The training
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We started with a training programme,
but people almost told us that they did not need training to use Outlook
Manoj Chandiramani,
Vice President - Networks
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Refco-Sify chose Microsoft CRM partly because its interface resembles that
of Outlook and Excel, ensuring that the learning curve for the average employee
is not too steep. “We started with a training programme, but people almost
told us that they did not need training to use MS Office products,” says
Chandiramani.
People have raised issues about the security of Outlook,
but according to Chandiramani, it is not an issue. The Microsoft CRM application
has a single super user who can access logs and general system information and
manage the system. For end-users there are agent logins that have distinct role
definitions for the extent of permitted access
based on the individual, group or organisation.
The benefits
The result of the CRM deployment, even before the analytical part, has been
satisfying for Refco-Sify. Here are the advantages of the system, according
to Chandiramani:
Quality monitoring: Any manager can randomly take a client trail, and question
a sales person regarding his actions.
Less training time: Every time a person leaves the organisation and is replaced
by a new employee, no special IT training or dedicated sessions for the newcomer
are required.
Professionalism: Agents handle customers in a professional manner as there is
no communication gap.
Knowing the pulse of customers: The company can capture the thought process
of customers and provide customised services. For example, if a person does
not want to be called on the cell phone, and wants to interact only by mail,
then the CRM software warns the tele-caller before he calls the client.
Business process reengineering: Based on the feedback collected and to ensure
that the solution is integrated and used optimally in the organisation, Refco-Sify
has redesigned some of its processes. Among them are some forms that required
too many customer signatures and were cumbersome. It has made life easier for
the company and its customers.
Bottom line: According to Chandiramani, Refco-Sify’s turnover has increased
by several times since the implementation of the CRM, and some credit goes to
the new system.
Deepali Gupta can be reached at
deepali@networkmagazineindia.com
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In BPO land
iSeva provides BPO services—inbound customer care,
outbound customer acquisition, and transaction and data processing—to
mortgage, banking and high-technology firms. It chose a Talisma solution
with chat, e-mail and phone interfaces to spruce up customer service metrics
and enhance business relationships.
The need
Founded in 1999, the company was acquired by the e4e
Group in 2004. Among their prized customers is a security software solutions
provider that iSeva deems as critical to its business. While renewing
its contract with this client, the company wanted to deliver better service
metrics to enhance its business relationship. To provide these client-specific
services, iSeva needed a robust CRM solution.
The solution
The aim was to have mechanisms and process enablers
to record customer feedback, ensure routing and follow-up of “open”
requests and escalate provisions for unattended or priority requests.
The system was required to accept inputs through e-mail and phone. The
organisation was also looking at chat as a channel to support customer
requests.
The Talisma solution that iSeva chose provides it with
chat, e-mail and phone interfaces. Irrespective of the medium chosen to
contact the company, the CRM application shows all previous interactions.
It provides reports for monitoring operational effectiveness, for instance,
reports on agent, skill and group productivity.
The service
Krishna Kumar, Head, Tech-nology Management, iSeva
Systems says, the vendor tailors services to the needs of iSeva and follows
a best practices-based project-implementation methodology. Talisma provided
for a simplified deployment:
- Business vertical analysts
- Technical analysts
- Implementation project managers
- Best-practices consultants
The Talisma Product Support team also services the
CRM framework at iSeva.
The training
Any new technology roll-out involves planning. “At
iSeva, our key to successful migration is to do a phased roll-out,”
says Kumar. The deployment at iSeva has been planned to ensure that the
initial “teething” issues do not create a large-scale impact,
and shortcomings from the initial roll-out are circumvented as the operations
scale up.
Fortunately for the company, the user interface of
the CRM it deployed is user-friendly and its interfaces resemble those
of other software the staff was already familiar with. This meant that
the staff got acquainted and began using the software in a matter of days.
The benefits
iSeva does not wish to disclose the financial figures
related to the project. However, it believes that the investment was worthwhile.
“The solution gave our Customer Service Agents (CSAs) the tools necessary
to provide timely, relevant and accurate responses,” says Kumar.
To the company, this meant:
- Improved first-time resolution rates, which
lead to customer satisfaction
- Reduced operational costs as CSAs spend less
time searching through volumes of disparate data to provide timely and
accurate responses to customers
- Improved agent efficiency by providing a contextual,
multi-channel customer interaction history, enabling CSAs to quickly
and accurately leverage corporate knowledge assets to help the customer
- Capability to evolve with market needs due
to reporting capabilities and metrics based on e-mail interactions the
organisation has had with customers
- Deepali Gupta
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